New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed legislation to increase the state’s minimum wage over five years, reaching $15 in 2024. Thereafter, the minimum wage will be tacked to increases in the Consumer Price Index. New Jersey is the fourth state, following California, Massachusetts, and New York, to enact $15 minimum wage legislation.

 

The first increase is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2019, when the minimum wage will increase from $8.85 to $10.00. On January 1, 2019, New Jersey’s minimum wage increased from $8.60 to $8.85. Between the increases on January 1 and July 1, the minimum wage will increase a total of $1.40 in 2019—the largest increase in a state minimum wage in 2019. California, Maine, and Massachusetts each had a $1.00 increase on January 1, 2019.

 

With trifecta control of state government, Democrats were able to pass the minimum wage increase without the support of legislative Republicans. In 2016, Democratic legislative leaders considered putting the issue before voters as a constitutional amendment after then-Gov. Chris Christie (R) vetoed a statute. Referring constitutional amendments to the ballot does not require the governor’s signature.

 

Legislative Democrats asked voters to increase the minimum wage earlier in Christie’s tenure as governor. Voters approved the $8.25-an-hour ballot measure in 2013. According to Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, he could not reach an agreement with Senate President Stephen Sweeney regarding how a $15 minimum wage would be implemented. At the time, Prieto said legislative leaders would start again when a new governor took office in 2018. Murphy, who campaigned on increasing the minimum wage to $15, was elected to succeed Christie on November 7, 2017, giving Democrats trifecta control of state government.

 

Of the 29 states with a minimum wage above the federal requirement of $7.25, 14 were enacted via citizen-initiated measures in states with divided governments or Republican trifectas. None of the ballot initiatives were on the ballot in a state with a Democratic trifecta. Fifteen of the increases were enacted via legislative bills in states with Democratic trifectas or, in the case of New York, a divided government. None of the increases occurred via legislation in Republican trifectas. In Michigan, legislators under a Republican trifecta amended a citizen-initiated measure in December 2018. The legislation, like the citizen-initiated measure, was designed to increase the minimum wage to $12 but over a longer time period. As of February 5, 2019, ballot measures to increase state minimum wages have been proposed for the 2020 ballot in Florida, Nevada, and South Dakota.